Tuesday, February 16th - Cape Town to Durban, South Africa

This morning we were up early, packed and ready to head to the airport at 7:00.  We said our final goodbyes to those who were downstairs at that hour but basically it was just Fran and Suzanne.  Fran starts her journey back to Kelowna later today and then has to go back to work soon.  We were very sympathetic about that part as we prepared to keep travelling for a few more months.  This was her first big trip and she had a great time so I'm sure she'll be doing some more travelling soon, hopefully with us.  Suzanne from the UK was a delight on the trip and always laughing and in a good mood.  We will no doubt stay in touch with her.

Everything went fine at the airport and the flight was on time and very smooth.  I read all the way.  I think I've been working on the same small book, The Elephant Whisperer" for over a month now.  I just never find time for reading!  Hopefully that will change in the next week as it is a good book.

We arrived in Durban and took a taxi to our hotel.  Well, actually we took a taxi to a different hotel.  We're still not sure why he dropped us where he did.  We told him the name and address of our hotel.  Even when he pulled in I said this is not our hotel and he said it was all the same group so we figured this was the main reception.  But no, they weren't related at all.  I'm not sure if he wasn't paying attention or if he really didn't know exactly which one was ours or whether he was just in a hurry to get away.  Regardless, we won't be calling Jared for any further taxi duties.

Once we confirmed it was the wrong hotel we walked to ours which was only a block away so pretty easy to get to.  Luckily we knew we were in the right area or it really would have bee frustrating.  Our hotel looked a bit worse for wear though.  There seemed to be a bit of construction happening on the outside and when we went in we realized it was happening on the inside too.  The place looked deserted except for construction workers and there was a lot of material and construction dust around.  One room was ready so we both went up to it.  It seemed to be right in the middle of the construction and it had some towels rolled up just at the base of the door to keep the dust out.  However, the room itself looked quite nice with high ceilings and a view of the ocean.  The other room (mine) was eventually available and it too was nice and had the ocean view.

We walked down the street to a restaurant for some lunch and then continued walking to the information office for some maps and brochures.  By the time we came out it was really misty or rainy, so we just walked back to the hotel.  These were very short walks; maybe five minutes to the restaurant and ten more to the tourist office.  The ocean runs all along this street so it really is a nice location.  There are all kinds of restaurants around so it won't be any problem finding a place to eat.  Most of the beaches are swimming beaches but a few are not.   There are about a dozen piers up and down the beach so as a worst case scenario we might have to walk one pier over to get to a better swimming beach.  That of course assumes that the sun comes out.  It was misty on the way in from the airport and after we got back from our walk it really started raining.  And it's very windy so the rain was going sideways - luckily past my window and not in because I was enjoying the breeze and really didn't want to close the window.

The internet is lousy.  I can get about three e-mails downloaded and then it just seems to stop.  I really need to upload some pictures from my iPad to the cloud so I can delete them off of the iPad and make room to move more pictures from my camera to my iPad.  I certainly hope this happens before the week is out or I won't be able to see any of my Bolivia pictures or any others.  Internet is definitely a problem over here.

We wandered out about 6:30 to find a place for dinner.  It was still raining or at least drizzling but with our rain jackets on and hoods up we were fine, and it wasn't really cold at all.  We went to what we thought was going to be a decent sit down restaurant on the ocean front but in fact it was a fast food joint with a few seats but mainly for take away.  All of the places down there seemed to be the same; fish and chips, burgers, ice cream, chicken, etc.  We had some chicken at the one spot and then some ice cream at the next.    After that we walked back to our hotel.  I tried to do some more internet and then just called it a night.  It sure seems strange just having the two of us around when we've had twenty around for the last month.  However, it also seems very relaxing and we can sleep in and we don't have to get on the bus tomorrow.  Yippee!